Rules

Concept: “10 urban legends whispered on the streets of CY and in the dark corners of the NET. The fact is usually worse than the fiction.”

Content: A collection of urban legends about mysterious individuals, locations, and events that might intrigue or terrify a group of punks.

Writing: Ominous tales framed as though potentially spoken by CY residents, allowing for easy slot-in ambience and plot hook/seed for GMs.

Art/Design: White, pink, and yellow text on dark blue with occasional purple circuit-board background designs and a large pair of eyeballs near the bottom of one page. Presented as three pages of single-column text.

Usability: Font choices and colors make for easy visual readability and identification of distinct content purposes (e.g., pink text for headings/labels, yellow for important details, names, and locations).

Concept: “Avtozak is a Cy_Borg expansion about riots.”

Content: A set of riot-related NPCs, weapons, and a table of riot causes.

Writing: Terse, frank descriptions and stats/mechanics for included content.

Art/Design: Illustrations of riot vehicles and participants (cops and protesters) with highlight colors are positioned alongside relevant high-contrast text.

Usability: Font choices are readable, with headings/labels and background colors for distinct sections that assist navigation and perusal.

Concept: “The fields. Monoculture deserts of genetically enhanced crops like wheat 4.6, ultra-maize, and soykin. Spliced to perfection. All earth is sterile. Killed by an unhallowed mix of unfiltered UV-radiation and the most potent poisons. Only hard fertilization keeps the masses alive and fed. Traveling through the cultivations is not without peril. Chemships puke their concoctions onto the plants; mechanic harvesters that have never seen an animal or human cut down all in their path.”

Content: A treasure trove of rules (miseries, glitches, mutations), gear, location/site summaries and generators, map hexes, random encounters, enemies, classes (“Mutant” and “Elektron Rohre”), job seeds/contracts, and even a dungeon to explore.

Writing: Intense, vivid, and wry descriptions that bring to life the sprawling wastes that surround Cy.

Art/Design: A mix of collage, pixel art, graffiti, graphical user interfaces, print reports, and more to frame each page/spread uniquely but feeling comfortably in line with the official/core Cy_Borg aesthetic. Map hexes provided as additional file.

Usability: Wide variety of layouts, font choices/sizes/colors, and organization can slow down reading and navigation (e.g., class info interspersed among NPCs), but hyperlinked table of contents aids with identifying desired details.

Concept: “Some trashy random tables for generating odd sports and shows names punks play in CY_.  You can roll some cocky champion names too and get some inspiration from the portraits provided.”

Content: Tables for quick generation of game types/specifics and famous sports NPCs, all of which are soaked in CY style.

Writing: Table results are vivid, grungy, and dystopian–exactly what you’d hope for.

Art/Design: Contrasting-color rows help with table navigation, with tables positioned around the edges of large image spreads (an arena and a gallery of NPC portraits), with an eye-bleeding aesthetic and palette.

Usability: While not all tables are labeled, it’s clear what each does functionally and how to use it alongside the others.

Concept: “Maybe you're tired of Players rolling Presence to charm/snipe/shoot their way in and out of any situation, especially that Discharged Corp Killer who, for some reason, rolled a +3 on his Presence. Well, do not worry anymore, as this hack aims to fix that.”

Content: An expansion of stats and skills to add a bit more crunch to games of Cy_Borg. 

Writing: Focused, direct explanation of optional mechanics to integrate into a game, along with an insightful rationale for the hack’s existence and a character sheet organized to include the new stats & skills.

Art/Design: Single-column white text on a dark black-and-purple patterned background. Character sheet mixes hand-drawn illustration, photo collage, and fillable fields.

Usability: Text in both files is high contrast and has consistent font use for headings/labels and body content. Unfortunately, text is not embedded in either file, so searching/selecting is not available.

Concept: “Club 27 is a Cy_Borg expansion about the Club 27 urban legend.”

Content: A nightclub with a discerning membership, some of whom can be hired as mercs.

Writing: Brief details about the club and its members that suggest a variety of ways that a GM might incorporate the place into their game.

Art/Design: Single-fold pamphlet layout with an immersive background club-aesthetic illustration for each panel overlaid with text content. 

Usability: High-contrast text is easy to read, with headings and emphasized text visually distinct through font size and color. Most text is embedded, allowing for searching/selecting.

Concept: “Optional tables to be used with your Cyberpunk or modern day games... well, lets just say it aloud -- it's intended to be used with CY_BORG first and foremost. It's absolutely awesome, just stop playing anything else right now. On a single page here you will find a broad diversity of cultural and visual aesthetic touches that you can easily apply to your PC or NPC characters, enhancing the level of immersion. It could be completely random or by your responsible choice, as it suits you and the nature of your games. As a note: for your character's gender definition you can use two types of randomization, d20 (higher chances to get cisgender result) and d12 (even chances between results). Use the one that fits your games. And feel free to pick anything that better suits your character. Zero offense intended.”

Content: A set of tables relating to personality, from ethnic background and gender identity to outfit style and hair & nail color.

Writing: A wide variety of options available in each table (from 8 to 40, depending on the table) that can help customize a punk.

Art/Design: Green on black boxes over a partial portrait of a punk character.

Usability: Consistent presentation across tables and high contrast between fore and ground make this usable and accessible.

Concept: “This pamphlet is a game master tool for adding hydraulic-powered boxing into your games without stretching melee combat too far.”

Content: A set of rules and tables to facilitate boxing/brawling, especially between cybernetically augmented fighters sparring for money.

Writing: Rules are terse and supplemented by similarly terse but vivid descriptions to situate the fights in CY.

Art/Design: Trifold pamphlet organization, with clearly distinct panels of differing text/background colors and contrast. An illustration of Greek fighters accents one panel.

Usability: Color and font choices mostly provide strong contrast and readability, with arrangement of panels allowing for rules/scenarios to unfold just as pamphlet unfolds physically. Two panels may be difficult to read visually for some (thanks to white on orange color scheme).

Concept: “Alternate character gen rules, for a slightly more forgiving dystopian hellscape.”

Content: A set of rules to alter character creation, including increased HP and an adjustment to stat bonuses/penalities. 

Writing: Explanations are terse and easily understandable.

Art/Design: Single-column layout with a stats table sidebar, with light gray text on a dark background.

Usability: Large headings and horizontal rules help indicate distinct sections and their purposes. Rule adjustments should provide quick adjustments to play.

Concept: "Random tables to spice up your PCs." 

Content: Two tables for customizing living dead creatures: d6 heinous powers and d6 ways to become undead.

Writing: Flavor is hilariously macabre, and mechanics are explained clearly but also in line with macabre flavor.

Art/Design: Black/yellow color scheme accents the image of a deranged living dead creature surrounded by table entries.

Usability: Content is easy to read but tables are “exploded” across the page.

Concept: “I made some loot generation tables for Cy_BORG. They can make everything from borderlands-style guns to unique cyber-ware and drones. I tried to be comprehensive but also simple in my explanations as I was fitting as much as I possibly could into three pages. I hope people find this fun to use!”

Content: A set of tables that provide for the creation of an incredible variety of loot with not only mechanical effects but also quirks and other unexpected features.

Writing: Terse and direct explanations maximize the number and range of options and leave space for imaginative interpretations of generated items and their uses.

Art/Design: Each table appears within its own neon-bordered box (some with brightly colored backgrounds and some with slightly overlapping borders) over a series of dark background images (weaponry, robots, etc.) across the overall set of tables.

Usability: The font choices are clear and the tables are arranged in a manner that makes for relatively easy browsing, although part of the initial enjoyment is stumbling across a new table and its creative scope. The supplement is provided as a PNG and as an image in a Google Doc, so the text is not selectable or searchable.

Concept: “I made some loot generation tables for Cy_BORG. They can make everything from borderlands-style guns to unique cyber-ware and drones. I tried to be comprehensive but also simple in my explanations as I was fitting as much as I possibly could into three pages. I hope people find this fun to use!”

Content: A set of tables that provide for the creation of an incredible variety of loot with not only mechanical effects but also quirks and other unexpected features.

Writing: Terse and direct explanations maximize the number and range of options and leave space for imaginative interpretations of generated items and their uses.

Art/Design: Each table appears in its own box, with some slightly overlapping others. There is a mix of font types, sizes, and bolding to help visually distinguish tables from one another.

Usability: The font choices are clear and the tables are arranged in a manner that makes for relatively easy browsing, although part of the initial enjoyment is stumbling across a new table and its creative scope. The supplement is provided as a PNG and as an image in a Google Doc, so the text is not selectable or searchable.

Concept: “Generate an infinite number of baddies that wander the streets of Cy. Capable of generating GOONS, DRONES, BEASTS, CYDROIDS, PHREAKS and VEHICLES. 27 stylized pages detailing enemy creation rules. Over 100 new special abilities, more than 60 new NPC wants and 3d12 description tables per enemy type.”

Content: Tons of tables to determine encounter specifics–not only which enemies and how many appear but also what’s motivating them and what might be exceptional to this particular group (quirks, appearance, special attacks, etc.).

Writing: Imaginative and enticing table entries ensure each generated set of NPCs will feel like unique, fully formed characters.

Art/Design: Distinct two-page spread layouts include a background or centerpiece illustration surrounded by tables, mostly framed in translucent boxes to increase fore/ground contrast.

Usability: Font choices are easily readable, and headings/labels are consistently presented to help with ease of navigation and identification of desired info. However, text is not embedded, so searching/selecting text or using a screen reader are not possible.

Concept: “Trinkets, trash, and trouble…”

Content: An alphabetized list of assorted items that might be found in the pockets of an inhabitant of CY.

Writing: Concise, wide-ranging inventory to help bring a character to life.

Art/Design: A two-page spread with a glitchy portrait on the left and the list in two columns to the right.

Usability: Extremely navigable and readable with high contrast between fore and ground.

Concept: “404//SAN is the demented frontpage of the NET, where manifold rumors, advertisements, hoaxes, and conspiracies produce a worthless information sludge. Still, more than enough masochistic users flock to the site to be entertained by trolls or cheated out of their life's savings.”

Content: A one-stop shop for adventures/scenarios, NPCs, monsters, apps, cyberware and equipment, additional rules ideas, and more.

Writing: Every page provides dozens of imaginative and enticing ideas for inspiration, with many pages offering highly engaging in-universe descriptions or framing for their game content.

Art/Design: A variety of artistic and aesthetic styles that embody the artpunk philosophy. The browsing experience feels in line with the CY_BORG rulebook itself.

Usability: Requires close, and often slow, examination to identify and make effective use of content (text and image alike), especially when moving across very differently styled spreads–but very worth the effort.